Hem of His Garment

 

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.  And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her.  She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped... Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace."  (Luke 8:42-48 NIV)

Before I went to a particular evangelist, I had prayed that God would have him call me out of the audience for healing prayer.  And that’s what happened – the evangelist called out my exact symptoms and told me to come down to the front.  I practically ran down front; I was so excited to receive my healing.  I waited as the evangelist called out more people, and then finally he started to lay hands and pray for each one.  When he prayed for me, I felt the healing power flow through him into me.  He left me and continued down the line. 

Over and over he went up and down the line, praying for each one of us, and each time he prayed for me I felt the power.  It grew stronger each time he prayed, and amazingly, gold dust started to appear on the evangelist.  This was something I had never seen before, but it was undeniable.  Each time he came to me for prayer, I noticed there were more and more gold flakes on his suit. 

I started chatting to the woman next to me.  We were both in awe of this power of God that surrounded us, and we soaked it in and enjoyed every minute. 

But as we chatted, we both talked about how we’d been prayed for multiple times by many evangelists, yet healing never came.  We even commented on how, even though we were grateful just to be able to experience the sweet presence of God, we didn’t receive healing this time either.  Although some people received a healing that night, my new friend and I did not.

As I reflect on that now, years later, I realized that my friend and I were like the multitude of people in Luke 8 who touched Jesus but didn’t receive anything. 

But some touched him and did receive healing.  What was the difference?

I’m thinking it has to do with faith.  Do we have faith, as Colossians 2:12 says, “in the working of God?”

When the woman with the issue of blood reached out and touched the hem of Jesus’s garment, was she thinking of Malachi?

Malachi 4:2 tells us that it’s in the “wings,” or the hem of His robe where we find our healing.  (The Hebrew word for “wings” is an “edge or extremity…a wing, … a garment, or bed-clothing”). (Strong 1983)

It was in this powerful little secret that she seemed to put her faith when she touched the edge of his cloak and said, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

The sick people in Matthew 14 seemed to understand it to when they “begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.”

Thinking back to the meeting I went to…

We, as a group, had been seeking Jesus.  His power and presence came, and I was so overwhelmed with the excitement of it all that I stopped there.    

Do you see where I’m going with this?  What if I had been like the woman with the issue of blood?  Her attitude was so different than mine.  She was there on a mission.  I was simply there for the adventure, the experience, the excitement – but she came to receive.

It started with faith.  Before she ever reached out and touched Him, she believed that if she could simply make contact with His power, she would be healed.  She had faith in the working (power) of God (see Colossians 2:12).

It kind of feels like God Himself had faith in His power when He created the world.  He seemed to know that when He spoke, things would happen.  Was the Holy Spirit present at creation?  Yes, He was there, hovering over the waters (see Genesis 1:2) before the command was spoken and our world miraculously came into being.

Knowing that Jesus said we would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us (see Acts 1:8), can we also expect and command a miracle when the “power of God is present to heal” (see Luke 5:17)?

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.  Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.  (2 Corinthians 4:13 NIV)

Anyway, back to the woman who reached out to Jesus... the next time the power and presence surrounds me so strongly I’ll be more like her.  I’ll reach out in faith and receive.

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”  Jesus turned and saw her.  "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you."  And the woman was healed at that moment.  (Matthew 9:20-22 NIV)

 

Reference:

Strong, James. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words. Baker Book House, 1983.

 

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.  Used by permission of Zondervan.  All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com.  The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.